Locals, though, are wary about constructing amenities for them.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= IUMS |
By Mehran Mazari
Every Friday, hundreds of Muslim men and women pour into a mosque in an unassuming four-story building in Beppu, a hot-spring hotspot on Kyushu, Japan's southernmost large island. Many are students who attend Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University (apu) nearby and work part-time at the motels in the area. Others have arrived to staff the fishing boats and shipyards that the local people's aged and declining population can no longer properly staff.
As the government has pushed to attract more foreign employees and students, the number of worshippers has surged in recent years. According to Tanada Hirofumi of Waseda University, the number of Muslims in Japan has more than doubled in the last decade, from 110,000 in 2010 to 230,000 at the end of 2019 (including up to 50,000 Japanese converts). The country has over 110 mosques. That is a wonderful shift, according to Muhammad Tahir Abbas Khan, an apu professor and the president of the Beppu Muslim Association (bma). When he originally arrived from Pakistan as a graduate student in 2001, the country had only 24 mosques, with none in Kyushu.
Although Muslims were not previously welcomed in Japan, in recent years they have been more tolerant of religious or cultural understandings that differ from their own. In Japan, Muslims come from a variety of national, ethnic, cultural, and lifestyle backgrounds.
Some Japanese Muslims closely adhere to traditional practices such as prayer and fasting, but others are more permissive. Many factors are fueling the rapid increase of Japan's Muslim community, including the following:
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= IUMS |
First, over half of Japan's settled Muslims are married. This implies that there will be more second and third-generation Muslims in Japan in the future.
This new generation of Muslims will be exposed to a variety of cultural and social backgrounds, and they will be critical in integrating conventional Japanese society and the Muslim community.
Second, there is economic expansion. The second major factor for the concentration of the Muslim population in Japan is economic growth. Workers from Muslim-majority countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh come to Japan.
First, over half of Japan's settled Muslims are married. This implies that there will be more second and third-generation Muslims in Japan in the future.
This new generation of Muslims will be exposed to a variety of cultural and social backgrounds, and they will be critical in integrating conventional Japanese society and the Muslim community.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= IUMS |
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